The designer Karl Lagerfeld is reportedly unhappy with the biography “The Beautiful Fall,” about his rivalry with Yves Saint Laurent: “It’s a rubbish book by a mediocrity with the testimonies of a bunch of losers, most often the ones that I fired.”

FieldReport.com, which collects true-life stories, is offering a two-hundred-and-fifty-thousand-dollar prize for the piece that receives the highest ranking from users. The problem: everyone thinks it’s a scam.

The former Czech President Vaclav Havel has won the Jaroslav Seifert Prize, which was established after the Prague Spring uprising to support independent literature under the Communist regime.

Balios, an indie publisher, is offering free copies of the début novel “Resurrecting Randi” to readers who agree to join its social network, and a share in royalties to those who promote the book via e-mail.

Farmers with a literary bent are teaching a Farmers as Writers workshop next month in Oregon: “People may think we’re just groveling in the dirt all day, but it does give you time to think about stuff that’s bottled up all the time.

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